The Thirty- Sixth
Surah Ya Sin (O Thou Human Being) Mecca 41
Asad’s Version:
36:45 And [yet,] when they are told, "Beware of [God's insight into] all that lies open before you and all that is hidden from you, 24 so that you might be graced with His mercy," [most men choose to remain deaf;]
(36:46) and no message of their Sustainer's messages 25 ever reaches them without their turning away from it.
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَإِذَا
قِيلَ لَهُمُ
اتَّقُوا مَا
بَيْنَ أَيْدِيكُمْ
وَمَا خَلْفَكُمْ
لَعَلَّكُمْ
تُرْحَمُونَ ﴿٤٥﴾
36:45 [Ali]. When they are told,
"Fear ye that which is before you and that which will be after you, in order that ye may receive Mercy," (they turn back).
C3992. Man should consider and beware of the consequences of his past, and guard against the consequences in his future.
The present is only a fleeting moment poised between the past and the future, and gone even while it is being mentioned or thought about.
Man should review his whole life and prepare for the Hereafter. If he does so, Allah is Merciful: He will forgive, and give strength for a better and higher life in the future. But this kind of teaching does not suit those steeped in this ephemeral life, They are bored, and turn away from it, to their own loss.
وَمَا
تَأْتِيهِم
مِّنْ آيَةٍ
مِّنْ آيَاتِ
رَبِّهِمْ
إِلَّا كَانُوا
عَنْهَا مُعْرِضِينَ ﴿٤٦﴾
36: 46. Not a Sign comes to them from among the Signs of their Lord, but they turn away therefrom.
C3993. The Signs of Allah are many, in His great world,-in nature, in the heart of man, and in the Revelation sent through His messengers. They turn away from all of them, as a man who has ruined his eyesight turns away from the light.
[[ Asad’s notes - 24 For an explanation of this rendering of the above phrase, see surah 2, note 247. In the present instance it apparently denotes men's conscious doings as well as their unconscious or half-conscious motivations.
25 Or: "no sign of their Sustainer's signs" - since the noun ayah, repeated several times in the preceding passage, denotes "a message" as well as "a sign". ]]